NYI Fan Central Comments:Sure liked it better when there was one award. I did not even know they changed from offensive and defensive player of the week to give you an idea of how this has become a non-event.

Hopefully the league dumped the Messier cold-x award too as another terrible idea.***********************************************************Denver Post: Teri Frei questions the firing of Bob Hartley by the Atlanta Thrashers.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Granted the gm should have taken the fall with Hartley at the very least or Hartley should have stayed and Waddell dismissed but what Frei does not point out here is the Thrashers did have an urgency to make the playoffs for the first time last season. It's a lot of people like Frei that remind us all the time about hockey's lack of impact in the Southern markets and you cannot blame Waddell for understanding it was important for his club to qualify just as Garth Snow understood it was important for his club to qualify with the Smyth trade or the Sharks with the Guerin trade.

I don't know if Hartley was too tough for the players but when he was dismissed in Colorado many wrote/said the same thing about him. Fair or not sometimes it's easier to fire the coach then fire the players, especially on a team with a franchise player like Kovalchuk who can make or break not only a coach but a franchise.

I don't know what Kovalchuk thought of Hartley but as an outsider you have to think Waddell had an idea it's a move the star player would not be devastated by. **********************************************************What's the deal with Brent Sutter, was he poisoned that badly by the media out west about the Islanders or was it something with Justin Mapletoft?

"From that aspect, absolutely I'd like to see them (come back). I think they're taking strides that way. They're bringing people back that were part of their success."

NYI Fan Central Comments:I'm just curious where Brent Sutter thinks the Islanders are coming back from after making the playoffs four times in the last five years? Things have not been perfect, but there are a lot of NHL organizations that have been far worse during that time.

Chris Botta : In his media blog asks a very fair question here wondering if Sutter remembers the thousands of people who supported his career if he remembers them? ********************************************************Denver Post: Teri Frei also reports Ryan Smyth is having a news conference in Edmonton prior to his Tuesday game against the Oilers.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Hopefully we will get no tears this time. Would have been interesting if Edmonton for all the money they were throwing at restricted free agents decided to make Smyth an offer last summer but it's fair to say Kevin Lowe was correct not overpaying for a limited player. Islanders will visit Colorado this season. *********************************************************Sports Business Journal: Tripp Micklel and Eric Fisher report the league's response to the Rangers lawsuit with Bill Daly providing his written comments with the owners siding with the league by a count of 25-3 with Edmonton absent and Detroit in abstention.

The NHL filed more than four hundred pages of statements and exhibits from seven league officials and team executives Oct. 12 countering MSG’s claims that the league’s new media policy eliminates competition between the Rangers and other teams.

“The Rangers’ complaint amounts to an attack on the fundamental manner in which the league and every other professional sports league is organized and operates. … Granting MSG its requested relief would strip the league of its essential and fundamental structure.”

* Daly added that the Rangers popularity stems from playing other NHL teams and that it has benefited by hiring popular players who other NHL teams develop, such as Wayne Gretzky, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez.

NYI Fan Central Comments:This is a pay subscription site that we joined on a trial basis for use on Islander Fan Central for hockey/business information.

Good job by Daly reminding us other clubs developed the Rangers current stars and this is a partnership with the league. Clearly the other owners want no part of associating with James Dolan. I'm wondering if the Devils, Islanders and Sabres were forced by the man who owns their broadcast rights to support him?

Considering the Rangers lost the most money of any club going into the lockout and have lost money in an outdated building for decades to where they need free rent, tax exemptions and even low cost elecrricity at Msg and that Cablevision is willing to overspend out of it's own pocket to increase Ranger financial losses and even front loaded contracts to Drury and Gomez to circumvent the new CBA, why should any owner who wants to run a responsible hockey business long-term want any part of supporting Dolan and his hockey business practice?

Dolan's way over his head taking on the NHL unless his supporter speaker Sheldon Sliver controls this court like he did the PCB which killed the West Side Stadium with Silver's son a paid lobbyist for Msg.

Dolan does not have his fellow owners support, his team has no impact on national ratings and are invisible in baseball's largest market. Why is it a big deal to Dolan that his site is linked to the league website?

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